14.02.201800:23:00UTC+00Singapore GDP Growth To Moderate In 2018: MTI

Singapore's economic growth is forecast to moderate this year after logging the fastest growth in three years in 2017, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said Wednesday.

For the whole of 2017, the city-state economy expanded 3.6 percent, faster than the 2.4 percent growth in 2016 and the biggest since 2014.

The 2017 growth was largely driven by the 10.1 percent expansion in manufacturing. Meanwhile, the construction sector shrank by 8.4 percent. At the same time, growth in services producing industries doubled to 2.8 percent from 1.4 percent in 2016.

The ministry maintained economic growth forecast for 2018 at "1.5 to 3.5 percent." The central view is that growth will likely come in slightly above the middle of the forecast range, barring the materialization of downside risks.

The ministry sees downside risks from trade protectionism and faster than expected normalization in the US monetary policy. Nonetheless, the domestic manufacturing sector is expected to provide support to growth.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, gross domestic product climbed 3.6 percent year-on-year but slower than the 5.5 percent growth seen in the third quarter.

On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the economy expanded 2.1 percent, a moderation from the 11.2 percent growth in the preceding quarter.

Elsewhere, International Enterprise raised Singapore's non-oil domestic exports growth projection to 1-3 percent this year.